He averted his eyes from the sight, choosing to focus on shallowly breathing. His wrists chafed against his restraints as he suppressed reprimanding himself for getting ambushed like that. He bites his lip; what do they want?
Truly, he hasn't the slightest clue.
He can't help but feel almost as if Kosari had planned this. She'd, after all, strangely left before being left to fend for themselves and nearly die. He'd hope a Jounin could sense flames being released and chakra disappearing from the area, but he was beginning to doubt her. She should've saved them. Where did she go?
No, better yet: where is she now?
A figure sees him and his expression, buried underneath his tumultuous thoughts, and jerks the boy's chin up, "Awake, eh?" then he smiles a yellow-toothed smile with splotchy gums, "What nice blue eyes, boy. Like the sea."
Naruto jerks back his chin, annoyed. He can't say anything; a gag is in his way.
The man simply smiles, "It'll all end soon."
Who cares?
She cups her hands once more, as the gash on her leg grows ever more painful, "Hinata!"
She waits to hear anything, from a meek mewl to a shrill scream, but the sound of her own sharp and shallow inhales, along with rustling from the various birds in the trees are all she hears.
"Sasuke!"
She readjusts the pin keeping her hair wound around itself and her eyes sweep from left to right to left.
"Naruto!"
Her hands shake with self-loathing and anger and frustration. She runs a hand through her hair and the pin nearly snaps in two under her grip. She bares her teeth in a grimace before a tree splinters at her right. Her black eyes slowly slide over to the tree, splintered and dead in all entireties. The rock behind it and three trees behind the rock, too, are shattered and splintered in several pieces. The tree's leaves slowly float to the ground and she just barely dodges a kunai flying through the leaves obscuring her vision.
"Who's there!?" her voice is rough and her stance quite ready to deforest the immediate area.
The wind suddenly changes direction and her nostrils are accosted by the smell of explosives.
Damn it!
A bright white light engulfs her as the forest around her explodes.
A dashing young man stands before his Kage.
"Mizukage-sama," he begins, his smile straining his face, "I'm a bit fed up, you see, with having all my requests to meet with you be dismissed," he slips his hands into his pockets in a Kakashi-way and runs a hand through his colorless, shining hair, "Will you let my team compete in the Chuunin Exams?"
She laces her fingers together, "Isn't—"
The door bursts open, revealing a young shinobi looking decades wearier, "No," he grits out, "I don't care if I don't participate this year…" he pants, "Or next year or ten years from now. Just…" he angrily grips the handle to the door, "That murderer isn't competing!"
A few beats of silence ring out before Mei furrows her brows, "Chojūro-kun, what's the matter? Murderer?"
Rage glints in his eyes before he spits out his answer, "Three days ago, your top business analyst went to the Land of Fire where Kiri's ports are. He died suddenly in a huge explosion that took the lives of the port and the entire town surrounding it. I investigated it yesterday—"
"So that's why you just disappeared," the man frowns, "Chojūro, we were worried—"
"Silence!" Chojūro barks, gnashing his teeth, "After investigating it, I found no explosives that could've been just misplaced to circle the entire down. And, from the way that damage was done, it wasn't a normal explosion. It was lightning. As if to say someone with a powerful raiton affinity walked over there and massacred a few thousand people! It certainly wasn't anyone from Konoha; Hatake Kakashi's scent wasn't present—"
"And you stole the village's ninken unit," the man says, surprised and then disappointed. "You know, that's—"
"Meaning," Chojūro feels his blood boiling underneath his skin, "Someone from Kirigakure had to be sent. A Kage only can authorize a massacre on that scale! Tell me, Mizukage-sama: did you send her to kill those civilians and my father?!"
Mei keeps her composure, "Chojūro-kun, you are one of Kirigakure's most promising Genin. Yet, leaving without permission, on top of stealing the Police's ninken unit, and possibly S-Ranked samples and books on DNA analysis that are reserved only for Jounin, brands you with treason."
"Treason?" he repeats, stuck in his angry haze for a moment before, "Treason?!" he's incredulous; he just found the truth he at least should've been told! He was letting his father rest in some sort of peace! And, here he was: his village betra—
"Yes," she says without a shred of sympathy for him, "You committed several crimes, boy, punishable by a lifetime in prison…or death. You'll never see the light of day again."
His boiling blood hits the freezing point, as his teeth seem to chatter, "I-I had to do this! I had to get justice for my father! You certainly didn't seem keen on doing it!"
Mei flicks her wrist and ANBU operatives appear, "Take him away, to Hōzuki Prison."
The ANBU grab onto his arms, dragging him away.
"Hey!" Chojūro begins to scream, "I've got a younger brother! He needs me!"
"Wait, Mizukage-sama," the young man says, "He's just a child. He just…made a mistake."
Mei holds up a hand and the ANBU stop before throwing him to the ground in Mei's office, "What are you implying, Saisho?"
"I'm implying this: forgive him. In return," he glances at his student, "He'll compete in the Exams without questioning your authority or anyone else's. He'll get the Final Round and obtain the title of 'Chuunin'. Right, Chojūro?"
His eyes are wide with shock. He looks from Mei to Saisho as his heart races. "Is that it? If I compete…without question…you'll waive everything you say I've done wrong?"
"You did—" Saisho corrects.
"Yes," Mei cuts Saisho off with a lidded eye, "I can't lose one of my best Genin to mere impulse."
I feel like this is the wrong decision…
His heart beats painfully, "I'll do it," Chojūro grinds out, "Just…leave my brother and my mother alone, okay?"
"Good," Mei says, "Let this be a lesson to you, Chojūro-kun. Be careful to control your impulses and anger; I don't want you to end up a," she glances at Saisho, "bloodthirsty murderer."
Saisho narrows his eyes at her, "Mizukage-sama, I won't—"
"Go home, Chojūro-kun," Mei says, "Tomorrow, there's someone I'd like for you to meet."
Chojūro barely bows before darting out, clutching his heart. He knocks on his door a little too hard before it reveals itself to be unlocked.
"Kaa-san?"
The house is silent.
"I'm home…" he says uneasily.
Chojūro kicks off his shoes and in a panic, he runs to his brother's room.
"Ryosuke!"
He isn't there.
Chojūro quickly runs to all of the rooms in his house, his heart beating faster and faster, "Kaa-san! Ryosuke!"
In the end, Chojūro finds himself shaking before the door leading to his parent's adjacent bathroom. His hands shake and his pulse pounds in his ear, but in one swift motion he opens the door and sees nothing but red.
Red walls.
Red floor.
Red bathwater.
He drops to his knees as his ears ring, "KAA-SAN!"
Within the red bathwater is his mother, whose naked body is halfway sunken beneath the water. Several slashes decorate her body and her vibrant blue hair floats, mocking him with the false image of life. He grips her hand, terrified. Her hand is lukewarm; she'd killed herself earlier today! Anger and self-loathing threatens to overwhelm him, but the cooling body before him envelops his entire conscious.
"N-n-n-nii-chan."
Chojūro freezes and slowly turns around to see his younger brother peeking out from the cabinet underneath the sink, "R-ryosuke…" he lets go of his mother's limp hand before clutching his brother as tears roll down his cheeks, "Don't worry, Ryosuke. I'll protect you. Nothing bad will ever happen to you again."
A few days pass and Mei hands a scroll to Saisho, "Go to Konoha, and give this to the Hokage. It's the list of our Genin participating in their Exams."
"Yes, ma'am," he says and flickers away.
C sighs, glad to finally be out of the dense forest. He'd passed the Konoha checkpoint just a few miles ago. He pulls a twig from his hair and grimaces as it brings a few strands of blonde hair with it. He throws it to the ground and it rolls before falling into a gently flowing stream. He starts walking again.
cough…
C freezes in his track, "Who's there?"
He takes out a kunai and senses two chakra signatures very, very, close by. C looks in its direction and to his horror; he sees two bodies floating in the stream. Symbols indigenous to only Konoha adorn the bodies and after a moment of hesitation, he pulls the two out. One body, a boy, is quick to cough and wheeze, getting all of the water from his lungs. He opens his eyes and sees the other body. Then he sees C and lunges with a kunai already in his hand.
"Hey!" C says, evading his kunai before grabbing it from him and tackling the boy, "Calm down. I was the one who pulled you from the river."
Before the boy can spit something vile, the girl comes to, spurting up water. She wipes her mouth and looks around. Alarm shows on her face, "Sa—"
"I pulled both of you from the river," C says quickly, "Get it?" he pushes the boy away.
"Hinata, look for Kosari-sensei," the boy says, sending C a very, very dark look. The girl obeys and veins rise up from around her eyes.
Byakugan.
She peers into the forest.
Without the seal.
Greed for his country races through him for a moment. C takes a small step forward, and further ignites the annoyance and discomfort from the boy, whose very breath seems to be made of flames. "You stay back, trespasser."
C doesn't say anything back; he's old enough to be done with petty fighting like this. The Hyūga heiress sighs, "She's in the forest, coming towards us."
The boy darts into the forest and C narrows his eyes at him, wondering how he'd managed to move through the oak trees, hundreds of years old and several times larger than he, with ease and without ripping out his hair.
Sasuke quickly finds Kosari and says, "Naruto's gone!"
Before the Uchiha boy continues, he finds something wrong with the picture before him. Kosari normally held herself with a rigid posture, occasionally allowing a slight slouch when she slipped her hands in her pockets before taking them out after someone spotted her, as if guilty. But before him, her dark clothes were covered with white tape and the side of her face sported a lattice of bandages. Her entire left arm was covered in white tape and one of her fingers was set in a splint made of three senbon dulled at the ends.
Sasuke's vision is filled with death and a skilled killer all of a sudden. He grips her thin wrist, muscles tense and unrelenting against his desperate attempts to pry her hand from her kunai. "S-sensei!"
Kosari blinks and gasps shallowly, not believing her eyes.
Beneath her, tense with fear, is her student. Had I attacked him?
The small cut on his neck is proof enough; yes, I have.
Oh Kami.
The boy gets away and takes two steps back. Kosari kneels, "Fuck."
To her shock, the boy snickers.
Anger and horror and embarrassment and shock bare their fangs within her black eyes at him. He stops on a dime.
"It's just…" Sasuke suppresses his amusement, except for a smirk, "Never thought a rule-abiding ANBU like you would allow a little frustration get to you and profanity even to slip out."
Then he lets his amused mindset fade, "What happened to you? Were you ambushed too?"
Kosari pauses for a moment. So that's what he said.
"Yeah," Kosari says, "Where's Hinata?"
"This way," Sasuke says and leads the Jounin to the riverbank.
Relief spreads on the girl's face, "Sensei," and she is genuinely happy to see the woman.
Kosari would've returned the relieved sentiment to the girl, but a familiar face stops her, "I—"
"I found them," C says quickly, "I'm just a traveller."
"Where are your papers?" Kosari asks.
It had already been a long day.
He was tired. Done. And yet I still have this to deal with?
The day had started with a mission that wasn't too hard: just a simple cleansing of one of Kumo's troublesome areas, often plagued by petty criminals and prostitutes. But this time, there was a reason of about why Raikage-sama had branded the mission as 'B-Rank'. Darui had slid his eyes over to the three Genin of his before taking it. The mission had gone off without a hitch and he almost felt pride with the girl on his team managed to trick one of the criminals into killing himself with a sweet genjutsu. Things were going perfectly, but everything changed when the building itself exploded. Darui had no other explanation with just two of his Genin under his arms than the criminals trying to cover up more illegal drugs they'd imported. Yet, after very little observation, the reason was clear: the other Genin with straight black hair that stuck out in odd places with almost white tips had caused the building to explode in a flash of blue lightning. The sound of lightning had reached the Jounin's ears, sure, but he hadn't expected such a crisp sound. He hadn't heard that sound since he was a teenager: when his father was murdered by a famous proponent in winning the Second War for Konoha, and a lightning-user, the sound had rung through his nightmares. When the terrifyingly nostalgic sound had bounced out from his mind, he'd plucked his blood-soaked Genin from the basement of the building and nearly sucker punched him. The boy had had a strange expression, but that wasn't what made Darui's blood boil.
"Raikage-sama, excuse my lateness," Darui says, barely bowing as he shoves his Genin to the floor to bow.
"What happened."
It isn't a question.
It's a death sentence if he gets this wrong.
Darui takes a deep breath, "Today—"
The Raikage suddenly blurs and grabs the boy's face and peers into his eyes with shock, "Sharingan!"
Just how?!
The sound of crows crowing and swirling about is more than enough to awaken Shisui from his midday nap. The man strides over to Itachi's alcove and knocks softly.
"Enter."
The man enters quietly and looks at Itachi, "What happened?"
Itachi's frown deepens as he looks at the crow. After a pregnant pause the Uchiha teen replies, "It seems that Konoha isn't the only place to harbor Uchiha; Kumogakure seems to be sporting one."
"Oh?" Shisui says, but not out of amusement. He feels sick.
"Pein said we should investigate…" Itachi trails off, eyeing Shisui's pale complexion, "Is something the matter?"
"N-no," Shisui says, puffing out his chest a little, "Let's go investigate…and maybe see how much he knows."
A curt nod from the younger Uchiha, and the two are off to the secretive village clouded by…well…clouds.
"So here are the materials…" Kosari hands over the scroll to her former ANBU counterparts.
"Thanks," the ANBU seem to have an amused edge to their hollow voices.
Kosari nods before frowning, "Have any of you seen Uzumaki Naruto?"
They look from one mask to another before deciding upon an answer, "No."
"I see," Kosari says before flickering away to where Sasuke and Hinata await her.
I'm glad C-san has already gone; the ANBU were more than enough to help escort him. Still don't know why I needed to be the one to get the ANBU to help C-san, though…
"Let's go find Uzumaki-san," Kosari says, working on sensing the boy. In her weakened state, Chuunin-level sensing is all she can do. Kosari is well aware that straightforward sensing would easily be picked upon by any enemy shinobi hiding, but she's got to gamble. With problems weighing heavy on her mind, she can only justify her reckless actions with the fact that Naruto is important for the village's safety: without its jinchuuriki, Konoha would be invaded by other nations. She can't let that happen.
We must find Naruto.
Kosari leads the way with a slight limp and by midday when the sun is at its hottest, the three Konoha shinobi see decrepit gates leading to an equally decrepit and rundown town. Kosari struggles not to vomit; the smell of opium and other narcotics makes her downright nauseous. She covers her mouth and nose with her sleeve before gesturing for the two to follow.
"What's that smell?" Sasuke mutters, using chakra to keep from vomiting. "It's sweet…"
"More like sickly sweet," Hinata says, starting to tear up, "Sensei, what is this?"
Kosari doesn't trust herself to answer, settling on a small shrug before taking a deep breath and stepping into an alley, where she allows two shadow clones to sweep the town. Within the blink of an eye, the two clones disappear.
"Lady," a rough voice calls from the other side of the alley with a hand twirling a half-empty bottle of alcohol, "You lost?"
"Sensei—"
Sasuke grabs the man by the collar and slams him against the wall, "Have you seen a boy my age with red hair and blue eyes?! Answer me!"
"Get off me, brat!" the man swings the bottle to Sasuke's head, aiming to shatter the glass on his head. Kosari grabs the man's wrist tightly, her black eyes flashing in the shadows, "Answer him."
The man hesitates, "N-no," he says. Then he narrows his eyes, "You're shinobi!"
Then he screams it out, "Shinobi! Shinobi!"
It takes less than a minute for the alley to be surrounded with thugs. From the top of the building that casts a dark shadow in the alley, a woman dressed in a regal purple kimono looks down upon the three shinobi with drying shirts, scrapes, and white bandages, "Well, we can't have this," her yellow eyes narrow, "Kill them."
"H-hey!"
Naruto easily kicks the man away as he bites his bindings at his hands away. He spits it out before glaring, "Don't follow me," he stands before the threshold, "Or I'll kill you."
The man staggers away, terrified of the boy, suddenly so strong. He hadn't expected the skinny boy with strange red hair and sea-blue eyes to break free of his binds so easily. The man, in his addled state, can't understand what strength, monstrous, overcame the boy. Was the boy a figment of his imagination, a mere product of his pipe, or was he something else…
"Shinobi!" comes a cry that rings around the town, "Shinobi!"
The man, in an instant, understands. The boy must be a shinobi. He isn't some farm boy he can use for ransom to take over the neighboring town's fields to grow more opium. He's a skilled killer, with far more power than the man can ever imagine. To him, the boy is reminiscent of the killers of the past: the White Fang and the Kīroi Senko. The boy is an instrument of Konoha, judging from the headband he presently ties around his head proudly, and bait sent to lure reinforcements to end the opium trade once and for all.
It was no secret in the world that the one thing that all five Kages had agreed to for the first time since the War ended was that the opium trade must be stopped. The agreement had happened, to his knowledge, shortly after the Land of Iron's daimyo had been assassinated by none other than a Konoha shinobi.
His entire body shakes with fear, but he blinks as he finds himself lunging at the boy and a stifled voice gurgling, "You can't take my opium!"
The man heaves on the ground, not sure of what to make of the pain in his stomach, the red on his fingertips, or the screech from the boy.
Kosari drags both of her Genin away from the area, doused with the cover of a few smoke bombs. She ducks into an empty bar and presses herself against the wall, shutting her eyes with her brows knitted and sweat rolling down her face as she swallows hard and breathes shallowly.
My cuts reopened…
She looks down at her legs and sees blood slowly peeking out through the white.
"Sensei, you can't go any further," Hinata says firmly.
Kosari suppresses the urge to roll her eyes. Like you have any authority to start ordering me around.
"We'll go ahead," Sasuke says just as firmly.
"Like hell," Kosari grits out, "Don't be reckless."
Hinata's eyes flash with anger, "Like you're one to talk! You were the one that pushed yourself back there! Sasuke-san and I are more than capable to deal with petty thugs!" then rage rips across her face, "Is that it?! You don't trust us?!"
Kosari ignores the girl, focusing more on her clones, whose reserves are rapidly depleting, and on the trickling of thugs into the streets and into buildings to look for them.
Opium is illegal. International law was revised half a year ago to crack down on opium. Do they think we're here to raze the fields?
A screech reaches the Jounin's ears. Her eyes widen which way was that? She turns to her Genin, but to her dismay and shock, the two are gone. She curses under her breath before stepping into the street, "I'm right here! Come at me!"
The thugs immediately pick up on her call and come running with kunai, axes, swords, spears, and other weapons. With a battle cry, they charge at the woman, who draws kunai and chucks it. The men easily dodge, "Do you think mere kunai can beat us?!"
Kosari leaps onto a wall, sticking with her feet and kneels, wincing, "Yeah, I do," and the wire strung through the kunai ensnare the men. She leaps back down and unleashes a quick burst of taijutsu, aiming for non-vital organs and areas. Few men prove to be a challenge, especially with her fluid movements around their solid and slow punches and almost water-like absorption of their kicks before bouncing their force back and sending them flying into other fighters.
A few skilled men remained, creating a circle around the woman. Kosari feels the pain of her gashes even more so than before; mainly because her chakra is being spread too thin from her wounds to sensing. Even Kakashi had more chakra than she.
"Scary," a man grins sarcastically, "Don't worry, lady; we'll take you out of your misery soon enough!"
The man rushes at her with his sword. Kosari glares at him and dodges before twisting once more to evade the awaiting kunai. She plucks one out of the air and tries to plunge it into the man, but instead cuts his spear in half. He bristles with anger, "You bitch!"
Poof!
Damn, my clones…! Kosari twirls her body, ignoring the painful pop of her crude stitching and suturing of the gash on her shin, and sends an uppercut kick to the man's jaw. She hears a snap, eliciting a scream from the man. His body, sent flying up, lands on a few men, who accidently impale him with their raised swords, kunai, and spears.
Kosari turns her head, keeping the man's blood from splattering on her face. She turns a deaf ear on his screams as she jumps onto a rooftop and races to where her clones had last been. She hops down to the ground and turns a corner.
Her eyes widen and the only word that can come to mind is surreal.
Blood is splattered everywhere and her Genin lay in some of it, with their eyes closed and their chests heaving. Their hands shake, but Kosari knows that's just adrenaline.
I don't sense anyone else around. We're alone.
Thugs litter the ground, along with kunai, spears, saws, and a cornucopia of weapons she supposed they must've created themselves after having been isolated from other towns for so long. Kosari takes a few steps before dropping to her knees, racked with pain. She scoots herself to the side of a building and decides to redress her wounds.
With quivering fingers, she peels back the now-pink bandages and casts it on the ground.
Make it your goal not to get wounded, Kosari. Your low blood pressure and quite slow clotting combined make any deep gash deadly for you.
"Sakumo…" Kosari mutters bitterly under her breath as her vision begins to blur and her hearing going in and out. She takes out wire and a senbon and tries desperately to close the wound up again.
"I…" Kosari's fingers slowly lose their grip on the senbon.
"Hate…" the roll of clean bandages tumbles out of her grasp.
"…you," she breathes as her eyes roll into the back of her head.
Naruto slowly opens his eyes and sees darkness, and a faint light. He turns his head slightly and sees the origin of the light: the moon. He turns his head the other way and sees three familiar faces, along with two masks. The boy sits up and frowns. Where am I?
"Quite some bloodbath, kid," one of the masks approaches him and squats before him.
Naruto looks quizzically at the man. He must've voiced his thoughts, or the man was a Yamanaka. Yamanakas can read minds, right?
Naruto looks into the porcelain mask and sees two amused eyes. The bird mask itself is familiar, and the man's voice even more so.
Naruto scuttles away, reaching for a kunai to draw, only to find his holster gone.
"Remember me?" the man laughs, "I'd hope so. Doesn't seem you've gotten any brighter; you didn't even feel the lack of weight on your hip," then he glances at the curled form of Kosari, "Then again, Kosari just lacks any kind of skill in teaching people. Don't blame you, but if you die she'll probably lose the ability to enter ANBU again," he crosses his arms thoughtfully, "But, I doubt she'll reenter; she doesn't have the strength she used to have," he playfully punches her shin, eliciting a sharp inhale from the formerly sleeping Jounin, "Being a Jounin sensei has taken a lot out of you, huh? From getting attacked, bruised, sickened, burned, and nearly killed, you've been dragged through the mud; that's for sure. I'm honestly surprised you haven't killed—"
"Hawk," the other mask grabs his collar and shoves him on the ground, "That's enough."
Hawk brushes Monkey's grasp away, "Yeah, yeah," he shoves his hands in his pockets and walks out of the abandoned place. "Call me if you need me."
Once Hawk's signature is far away enough, Kosari slowly sits up and grabs her shin gingerly.
"Did he loosen the stitches?" Monkey queries. He pushes her fingers away, "I'll redress it—"
"No," she barks. Her black eyes shine with fury as her hands quickly sign her dissent, 'Tell me: the town where you must've found us; tell me everything about it.'
Monkey tries to ignore the interested looks that the Genin are giving him, but can't seem to shake off the suspicious look that the Uchiha boy is giving him, "Kosari-san, it's a little stuffy in here. Let's take a walk."
Kosari blinks blankly at him. Are you stupid?
"Here," Monkey says calmly and picks her up with an arm under her knees and under her spine.
Under a large pine tree, one former ANBU and one current ANBU sit. Kosari turns to look at the masked ANBU, 'Go on.'
'I'm sure you noticed, but it's an opium town; it produces nothing but opium for the illegal drug trade. A little less than six months ago, all five Kages agreed to crack down on the opium trade. Town like this know full well that they'll be driven out to work as poor farmers and kill anyone that looks like they'll get in their way.'
Kosari's eyes are wide.
'Did I clear something up for you?'
'Yes. These wounds are from an ambush in the forest. Several explosions went off and I was caught severely off guard. I think these were modified explosives; normal explosion tags wouldn't cause this much damage, especially when I know I wasn't necessarily within point-blank range of any. And, I suppose their determination to keep a hold on opium, nothing more than a cash crop really, is why they tried to kill us—Naruto, Hinata, Sasuke, and I.'
'Perhaps—'
A scream pierces the air, making Monkey look up and Kosari freeze, her fingers stopping dead in their tracks to redress her wounds herself. The scream resounds once more, causing Monkey to grab Kosari and rush back to the small abandoned cottage he and Hawk had found after investigating the sudden spike and then drop in chakra in the surrounding area near the ANBU post.
Monkey slams the door open and finds Hinata in a sudden panic, "Sensei!"
"What's wrong?" Kosari pushes Monkey away, making him let her go and her to gingerly stride towards the girl and grip her wrists, keeping her fingernails from digging further into her palms.
"He—I—but I didn't—" Hinata began to sob, "So much blood!"
"Hey," Kosari gets the girl's attention with a mild hypnotic genjutsu, something C-Rank, which at her low chakra levels is all she can pull off. Even now, she felt lightheaded.
"Dead…" Hinata sobs, "I…"
Hawk crosses his arms from the corner of the room, and lowers his gaze to the two females, "Sounds just like when that lucky Uchiha guy killed for the first time, Kosari-chan."
"Lucky?" Monkey looks at Kosari, "Who?"
Kosari presses her lips into a thin line, glancing at the corners of her eye at Naruto and Sasuke, the former vomiting into a trashcan and the latter quiet with his black bangs covering his eyes. She lets go of the girl, who sobs into her hands helplessly, "…can't believe…"
Kosari shakily stands and grabs Hawk's collar as Hinata's hiccups pound in her ears painfully. Shorter than he, Kosari pushes herself up on her tiptoes and glares grimly, "Why do you always have to antagonize everyone?"
Hawk decides to turn the tables and grabs the small of her back and presses her against him. He chuckles as her eyes widen for a moment.
"Why do you have to be such a pain? Why can't you just," she grits her teeth, "Just do as you're told?"
"Ah," he holds where his forehead is in faux-agony, "You Hatake, with all your stupid rules and regulations and ramrod lifestyles. What fun is living your life like this? Come on, Kosari-chan—there's got to be something you just despise about being an ANBU, about being a Jounin sensei, and you've got to just vent somehow. I want to go home and further my 'hobbies', but I'm stuck here. Kosari-chan, don't you have any goals in life? You act like living within black and white lines is everything a shinobi's got to do to be perfect. Aren't you just itching to reach your goal? Don't you love anyone? Don't you want to get married? To have kids? To grow old with your lover? To die in peace?"
Kosari's obsidian eyes go wide, shocked.
"Hawk," Monkey says quietly.
"I do this, annoy and antagonize and patronize you because I'm trying to teach you that even if you haven't settled on your goals, even if you haven't attained your goal yet, that you can still play around like you're a carefree Genin and find your goal on the way to the Shinigami. You have talent—and something the village prizes—and I hate seeing potential being thrown away so easily," he scowls behind his mask, "Those two Uchiha guys, for example. They were the best of the best, but they suddenly turned and killed their entire clan. They've thrown away their lives and chances at happiness," he sighs, "That Shisui guy, especially. He was my sparring partner in the Academy once. He had so much talent but wasted it on something as boring as becoming Second-in-Command in the Police Force. He didn't even take a wife or have any kids. Instead, all he does is just try to kill a fellow ANBU and murder a little kid and an infant. Do you have any idea how frustrating—"
Kosari sinks a punch into his stomach before dropping to her knees as her head spins in dizziness, "Hawk…" she can't catch her breath as memories of that night flood back, "Don't you dare say another word about Uchiha Shisui...or act like you understand one thing about me."
"Oh?" he intones, holding his stomach painfully. "Why not?"
Kosari gropes for an excuse, not wanting to tell the ignorant Hawk of the night Shisui killed his children instead of her, "Uchiha Sasuke is here. Do you want to remind a boy, who has barely come to terms with having just taken away a life, of his worst nightmare? Are you an fucking idiot!?"
Hawk blinks at her sudden anger, "…"
"Thought so," Kosari quietly says before she passes out. You hardly make any sense.
"Mission: success," Kosari intones. "We delivered the materials."
"You should go to the hospital, Kosari," Hiruzen looks over at her bandages, "And perhaps…" he smiles a little, "Have a professional dress your wounds? Medical procedure was never your strong point."
She scratches the back of her head to go through the motions of humility.
"Kosari, you may go. You three," Hiruzen looks at Naruto, Hinata, and Sasuke, "You three stay. I'd like to have a word with you three."
Kosari looks at him carefully, "Hokage-sama, are you sure you don't want me to sta—"
"Yes. Go," he says curtly.
With Kosari gone, the three Genin stood before their Kage.
"I doubt Kosari told you, but that town you went to was supposed to be for Elite Jounin and ANBU only to investigate and destroy. That town was an opium town that grows opium from the poppy plant after taking over neighboring rice fields and converting it for their poppy. They are one of the last known places to grow opium, which in all nations is highly illegal. Opium itself is a highly profitable thing, and highly addictive. The money generated is often more than most farmers will see their entire lives. This is why growing opium is much more enticing than farming rice and the lure of that much money drives people to do anything they can to protect their livelihood and profits. They might even try to kill any outsider just to keep themselves hidden."
He laces his fingers together as the Genin seem to shrink away when he says the last bit and his eyes hop from one Genin to the next, "Tell me exactly what happened."
"The mission was completed," Sasuke mumbles, "That's all."
"No," Hiruzen says, "Something happened. Something beyond what Kosari said. Did you fight anyone in that town?"
The three are silent, looking at their feet like their lives depended upon it. A bead of sweat rolls down Naruto's neck as Hiruzen stares them down as if they were insects under a microscope.
"Yes," Hinata's voice is barely audible. Tears fall to the ground onto her shoes and she tightens her grip on the hem of her shirt. "And we won."
"…I see," Hiruzen says, "You three are dismissed, then."
The three are more than pleased to get out of the office before going their separate ways.
Hiruzen sighs loudly, gripping the gnarled armrest with his equally, if not more so, gnarled fingers. Those Genin…they've seen poverty, they've seen unequal leadership, and they've seen the things people will do to gain money and keep it. And, now, they've killed. In a nutshell, they've seen the world and it's darkest and lowest parts. They know ninjutsu and have good taijutsu. Genjutsu may be a problem, but that is easily solved.
"Hokage-sama, got something for ya."
Hiruzen looks up as his student walks in with a small packet of papers, "What is it?"
Jiraiya's expression is grim as he pushes the papers towards Hiruzen on his desk, "Intelligence reports from Kumo."
Hiruzen reads it to himself. A young Genin, 12, named Imagawa Haruki possesses the sharingan with one tomoe.
"H-how…?" Hiruzen is flummoxed; Itachi and Shisui had killed every single Uchiha except for Kagami and Sasuke.
Jiraiya flips a few pages and a list of birth records is before him. Hiruzen reads it anxiously and finds… "No record of any birth twelve years ago besides Uchiha Sasuke a year before that. Meaning—"
"Meaning the kid either had his records destroyed, or his parents left Konoha for Kumo and didn't come back," Jiraiya crosses his arms, "We should send out one or two ANBU to investigate this kid, and maybe bring back a sample to test."
Hiruzen takes a long drag from his pipe, "But before that…Kurenai, Gai, Asuma, and Kosari's Genin teams aren't prepared to deal with the sharingan. We've got two months to prepare."
Jiraiya frowns in thought, "Kagami-sama and I could help out, I think."
"Good," Hiruzen flicks his wrist and an ANBU with a Monkey mask materializes. "Monkey, I'd like for you to arrange for Team 7, 8, 9, and 10 to report to the Uchiha training grounds two days from now. For now, inform Kagami about this, and help him prepare if necessary."
"Yes, sir," Monkey says and flickers away to the Uchiha compound.
It's been a long time since I've walked down here… Monkey walks through and finds Kagami standing before the Naka Shrine. The ANBU kneels before a village elder, "Kagami-sama."
Kagami doesn't turn to look at him.
"Hokage-sama wishes for you and Jiraiya-sama to prepare the four Genin teams for encounters with the sharingan. I was sent to inform, and help you prepare."